Various fluid pressure bearings for guiding machine tools or measuring machines, for example coordinate measuring machines for measuring workpieces, are known from the related art. During guiding with an air bearing, mutually movable elements, for example two components for moving a sensor of the coordinate measuring machine in three-dimensional space, are mounted in such a way as to be separate from each other by an air gap. Aerostatic bearings are known, in which the air gap is formed by delivery of air into the air bearing.
Such solutions permit exact measurement results in the measurement of the workpiece. Air bearings can facilitate high-precision and ultra-precision guiding by an approximate frictional freedom and a high degree of stiffness. Air bearings can be configured to compensate for short periodic or locally occurring guidance errors, such that more homogeneous operation can be achieved compared to other bearing types, for example roller bearings.
In principle, various types of air bearings are known which differ in terms of performance parameters such as air consumption, bearing oscillation and lift behavior in accordance with an applied force. Depending on the weighting of the individual performance parameters as a function of the respective use, for example for different load scenarios, the air bearing types can be advantageous or disadvantageous. As a result, in different load scenarios when using an air bearing type, there may be insufficient stiffness or even failure of the air bearing.